A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. The firewall creates a barrier between a protected network of trusted devices and an external network, such as the Internet. Firewalls allow defining security rules for incoming and outgoing network traffic, which are applied uniformly on all devices of the protected network.
Computing devices have become more and more ubiquitous in the last few decades. This trend of increasingly widespread use was boosted in recent years with the advent of mobile platforms, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), hand-held computers, and computerized mobile phones running a full-fledged operating system. This widespread use is expected to even further increase in view of the anticipated widespread of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, connected to computerized networks and used for sensing, monitoring, and affecting physical objects. It is expected that almost every appliance in one's house, such as a boiler, an A/C, a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, a Television, or the like, may be an IoT device, embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable it to collect and exchange data over the Internet. The IoT may allow objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. In IoT, each thing may be uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure.